A 12-year-old girl was diagnosed as having acute disseminated encephalomyelitis and manifested hypersomnia as the main clinical feature. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed lesions in the bilateral hypothalamus in addition to other multifocal brain lesions involving the cerebral white matter, brain stem, and basal ganglia. The level of hypocretin in… (More)

Various organ involvements and endocrinologic abnormalities associated with electrolyte imbalance, including hyponatremia, are seen in patients with mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and strokelike episodes (MELAS); however, the clinical significance of hyponatremia in these patients is rarely reported. We analyzed the serum sodium… (More)

To clarify clinical and laboratory findings that may be related to the pathomechanism of HTLV-I-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP), we analyzed these findings in 239 patients with HAM/TSP, including 64 patients followed up for 10 years after their first examinations, with special interest in the HTLV-I proviral load in peripheral… (More)

A 5-year-old girl presented with flushing and sweating on the left arm with coldness on the left palm that had persisted for approximately 24 hours. She had a fever and chicken pox-like exanthemas on her skin. She had no weakness, sensory disturbance or other autonomic dysfunction, such as orthostatic hypotension. Physical, neurological, blood and… (More)

We present 2 cases of narcolepsy with prepubertal onset. Although excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy had appeared early in both patients, the presence of sleep-onset rapid eye movement periods was detected several months after the onset of hypersomnia. The levels of hypocretin in the cerebrospinal fluid were reduced when measured 3 weeks (Patient 1)… (More)

Obesity, the leading metabolic disease in the world, is a serious health problem in industrialized countries. The Zizyphus jujuba fruit has been used as traditional Chinese medicinal herb and considered to affect various physiological functions in the body for thousands of years. We investigated the anti-obesity effect of Z. jujuba on adipocyte… (More)

Obesity, the leading metabolic disease in the world, is a serious health problem in industrialized countries. We investigated the anti-obesity effect of Blumea balsamifera extract on adipocyte differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes and anti-obesity effect of 3T3-L1 adipocytes. We found that treatment with an extract of Blumea balsamifera suppressed lipid… (More)

A 7-year-old boy with acute encephalitis was proved to have Coxiella burnetii infection. Cerebrospinal fluid but not serum had elevated values of interleukins 1-beta and 6, but not of tumor necrosis factor.

Influenza-associated encephalopathy is characterized by high fever, convulsions, and loss of consciousness associated with influenza infection in children, but its pathophysiology remains to be clarified. We examined 14-3-3 proteins, which are acidic brain proteins, in cerebrospinal fluid by immunoblotting in four patients with influenza-associated… (More)

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Fifteen appropriate-for-date premature low-birthweight infants with cystic periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) were studied. The infants were stratified into three birthweight groups: less than 1000 g, 1000 g and greater but less than 1500 g, and 1500 g or greater. Reported and new risk factors for PVL were compared with control patients for all… (More)